The number of Chinese netizens reached 253 million by the end of June, up 56.2 percent from 162 million in 2007, the most in the world, the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) said in a report on Thursday.

The report, the 22nd of its kind on the statistics of Chinese Internet development, revealed the country also had the largest number of broadband subscribers at 214 million, more than 80 percent of the total domestic Internet population.